


AC20 Day 16: Touch

by The_Rose



Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [16]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hidden Feelings, Hurt/Comfort, Maiev's priestess legacy, suicidal character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:01:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rose/pseuds/The_Rose
Summary: Maiev realized that Illidan is once again throwing himself mindlessly in battle, and she's well-decided to have a talk with him.
Relationships: Maiev Shadowsong/Illidan Stormrage
Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036257
Kudos: 13





	AC20 Day 16: Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> A simple and short fic for today ^^ Nothing else to add about it.
> 
> Enjoy!

The sun was slowly going down behind the horizon, and once again, a difficult day of fighting the Legion was ending. Deliverance Point was full with all of the adventurers and other members of the Army of Legionfall ready to have a calm evening, especially after they had spent all day scouting the Shore and the Isles to take down any threat that the Legion was making. A well-deserved reward for the tireless champions of Azeroth.

Sighing, Maiev crossed her arms over her bust and looked around. She had spent all day standing near the Command Center, gathering information and sending the adventurers and soldiers on special missions, depending on how much they were needed at the moment. To help her, there had been Velen, doing exactly the same thing, while Khadgar had been called for an emergency in Dalaran. And Illidan… He was nowhere to be seen, as always. She had seen him in the morning, gathering a few adventurers to assist him for the fight of the day, and he left. It had been hours that those adventurers had already come back to Deliverance Point, while Illidan decided once again to go fight by himself somewhere and he would only come back late at night, skipping meals again and doing only Elune knew what.

One day, he wouldn’t come back and they would stumble across his dead body. She knew it, and it was enraging her just by thinking about it. After all, she hadn’t looked over his dead body for years to see him lose his life in such a stupid way. But unfortunately, he had become pretty good at avoiding her like a plague, and she couldn’t even find the time to grab him and scold him like a small child. She only wanted to give him a lesson and she was well-decided to do it that night. And thus, she was carefully keeping an eye on everyone, in the hope to find him in the middle of the crowd once he would accept to come back.

As the hours began to pass, and that the moons were already high up in the sky, Maiev felt herself becoming really tired. She was aware that staying awake this late was bad, especially in times of war, but she knew that if she was waiting for the morning to scold Illidan, he was going to pretend he had to leave right away to avoid the conversation, and he would avoid her even more for the next few days. It was tonight or never. Even if she couldn’t stop herself to think that he was dead; that she had waited too much and that now, he was dead somewhere on the Shore.

But as she shook her head to get rid of that awful thought, she heard a familiar footstep coming right towards her and as she turned her head towards it, she noticed him. Illidan was finally back, though he was holding one of his arms and walking slowly as a faint muttering was escaping his lips. The most surprising was that he wasn’t even looking at her, despite that she didn’t really try to hide herself, and instead, he just made his way towards the tent area, but Maiev still decided to have that conversation.

“Illidan.”

As he heard the call, Illidan flinched but pretended that it was nothing as he kept walking and didn’t even turn his head to look towards Maiev, and she also had no doubts that he had recognized her voice, giving him one more reason to not care about the call. But Maiev wasn’t going to let him leave like that.

“Illidan!” she called again, this time walking towards him. “You could at least acknowledge me.”

This time, Illidan just stopped and slightly turned his head towards the Warden.

“Get lost Maiev. I’m not worth your time.”

Immediately, he spread his wings, ready to take off and leave her alone, but before he could, she grabbed his wrist, and just by the touch, he began to hiss out of pain and his wings quickly fell back behind him. He glared at Maiev but she didn’t care and instead, kept the wrist in her hand and gently examined it, only to discover that his arm was covered in bruises. Probably the reason why he had been holding it.

She sighed as she brought her other hand to hover above his skin, and suddenly, a soft white light began to emanate from the hand as a warm feeling took over his skin, slowly healing the bruises and any kind of pain Illidan would feel in his arm. Realizing it, Illidan quickly snatched back his arms and turned away to stop facing her.

“I don’t need your help,” he growled. “Leave me alone.”

Once again, he tried to get away, but Maiev blinked in front of him, blocking him the path as she grabbed his face, gently cupping it to bring him down to her level, and it was with no surprise that she once again saw the face of a suicidal man. Face that she had seen again and again on him. And once again, she remembered that one time, long, long ago, when a young golden-eyed elf had been brought in an emergency in the temple she was working in, and that she and all the other priests did their best to bring him back to life. And they succeeded, so it wasn’t for Maiev to lose him again millennia later.

“You need my help,” she gently whispered. “You are the only one who wants yourself dead here.”

“Don’t make me laugh, Warden. You already killed me and you won’t hesitate to do it again as soon as my back will be turned.”

“Is it why you keep refusing to face me? So I could stab you and put an end to your life? Do you seriously think that little of me?”

Illidan tried to look away, but Maiev's hold on his face was stronger than his will and he could only lower his eyes, unable to face her.

“Listen Illidan, we need you. And we need you alive. So please, stop being so reckless and let me help you.”

“You say that I’m needed, but that’s all,” he pointed out, a low growl building in his throat. “No one wanted me back because they wanted it. I’m only here to fight the Legion, so let me fight and die for what I’ve really been brought back.”

There was a resolution in a voice that hurt Maiev just by hearing it. If only he had known what had really happened when they were planning the attack on the Nighthold, but she knew that even if she was telling him, he was going to refuse to hear the truth, or simply brush it away as a lie. And yet, she needed him to know.

“I wanted you back,” she finally said. “Not for fighting or anything, I only wanted you back.”

She could feel him hesitating, slowly proceeding the words that she had said, but she wasn’t done.

“I never wanted to kill you, but you gave us no other choice and I’ve been regretting it all those years. And I refuse to let you die again.”

And with those words, she let go of his face, only to bring her arms around his chest and hugged him. Immediately, Illidan became tense under her touch and he wasn’t sure how to react, not only about the hug, but also about her words. After all, if it had been one person on all Azeroth that he had never expected to admit wanted him back, it was Maiev. What could have happened for her to admit it? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. But as the hug continued, as Maiev didn’t seem to want to let go, Illidan slowly realized how much he was craving it, loving that simple touch. A small but so needed proof of affection. Something he didn’t have for millennia.

“Let me help you, please,” she whispered against his skin, so softly that Illidan had a hard time believing it was the Warden against him.

What else could he do? Maiev was as reckless as him, and she was probably in better shape than him, so he wouldn’t be able to escape her. But he didn’t want to escape her, at all. He needed her for this night.

“Alright,” he finally said, accepting her help.

Gently, she grabbed his hand, and slowly, they made their way towards the tent area until they would reach the one that Illidan was using. As soon as Illidan sat down, Maiev began to examine his body, searching for the wounds that he had been hiding all this time, some news, some olds, and quickly, Maiev’s hands were covered in that warm healing light, an artifact of the time where she was a simple priestess serving Elune. The healing sensation was really soft and Illidan was loving it, even if he began to quickly regret that Maiev’s hands were simply hovering over his skin, and not touching him.

Finally, Maiev finished her work by going over his wings, and soon, the light coming from her hands faded and it left them in the sudden darkness, waiting for their eyes to catch up, but Illidan wasn’t needing it. His spectral sight immediately gave him the ability to look around, and as he turned around to look at Maiev, he discovered that she was crying, silently despite the tears running down her cheeks. He should have asked about it, he knew it. Maybe it was just that she wasn’t used to healing that much and that she was exhausted; maybe that she was relieved; maybe that she remembered something; maybe that it was more…

As the words were refusing to leave his throat, Illidan leaned towards her and gently cupped her face with a hand, brushing away a tear with his thumb as Maiev looked at him, a painful smile spread across her face. Silently, he brought his second hand towards her waist and then, pulled her to him, and this time, he was the one to hug her. Her hands walked on his arms while her body was shaking from the cry that she was desperately trying to suppress, and Illidan quickly brought his face to her neck while one of his hands moved to hold the back of her head, and the second was embracing her around the waist.

“I saved you,” she whispered, breaking the silence between them.

The hope and pride in her voice were taking him aback as he also heard the despair of all the time where she had failed. She had never wanted to be his enemy; only to help him even if she couldn’t find a way to express it correctly, and after all, wasn’t there a saying on how love and hate were just the two sides of the same coin?

“Maiev,” he softly whispered. “You… You love me, isn’t it?”

A faint whimper escaped her lips as she lowered her head. A silent yes that she couldn’t voice. She couldn’t admit it out loud, not after everything that she had done to him.

“How long?” he inquired.

“Too long.”

She would never tell him, she couldn’t. But in some way, she was hoping that he would understand that it was from before he even realized that she existed, way before the War of the Ancients. She didn’t want him to know how long she had suffered from her unrequited feelings for him, and how it made her change her behavior around him. It was too much for her to handle.

“I’m sorry.”

She understood. He was in love with Tyrande. There was no way he would ever bother to see her as something else than his Warden; his jailer; his killer. She couldn’t blame him.

And yet, she suddenly felt his lips on hers, a soft kiss that she wasn’t expecting but she couldn’t bring herself to break it. She had been wanting it for so long, to feel his lips as she would be in his arms, and now, it was happening even if she couldn’t understand why.

“I’m sorry,” Illidan said once again as he broke the kiss and looked at her. “That I haven’t realized it sooner.”

His hand was gently caressing her face and Maiev felt herself melting from his touch as she needed it more than never. It was more than she ever thought that she could get, and something in the way that Illidan was talking to her told her that it was just a beginning, that there could be more. That there would be more.

“Please,” she begged, her hands desperately holding onto his face. “Just for tonight.”

“No, not just tonight,” corrected Illidan.

And he went down to meet her lips again, his hands slowly getting under her shirt as Maiev pulled him as close as she could. All that waiting was finally going to pay, and she didn’t regret to have grabbed his wrist that night.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Tomorrow: A bonus chapter for one of my multi-chaptered fic, but it will be completely non-canon.
> 
> See you tomorrow and every day until Christmas with a new fic!
> 
> \----  
> Unfortunately, English isn't my first language so if someone is interested in becoming my beta-reader for the language, hit me up on my Tumblr!  
> Or if you just want to talk about WoW, my fics, someone else fics, or anything, you can still hit me up there!
> 
> https://thewritingof-therose.tumblr.com/
> 
> or on Discord
> 
> https://discord.gg/nvKggwc (An Illidan/Maiev Discord)
> 
> Later!
> 
> (Comments are welcomed and appreciated :D)


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